Lane

@Lane

Run games of various types, but mostly 5e, DCC, or Numenera. Maybe in that order?
Also got an 8 year old, who lays massive guilt trips if I run without him.
Want a 5e, DCC, or Numenera game? Hit me up. Especially if you're cool with an 8 year old in a game. Then I'm absolutely down. If an 8 year old is a problem, then it's just a matter of ditching him, which is harder (but he's ok. I think. Better than you might expect?).

Posts made by Lane

End of the year sessions
A group of hobgoblins, goblins, and bugbears, escorted by Acolytes and dogman guards investigated the buildings at the base of the Phunk's spire. No one really looked into it much, but it was discovered that the gobbos were emissaries from the goblinoid nation of Gorgria, east of Moonthrone, looking for a location to set up a Gorgrian embassy.

Hoping to establish better Folk contacts, the Phunk asked around in the Pelt District. At the Quartered Witch tavern, a known Folk front, they were tasked with investigating a nearby small tavern recently purchased and under renovation by immigrants the Folk found suspicious.

When they investigated the closed tavern, the group discovered the place to be run by diguised ghouls. Adrick, upon discovering they were ghouls, attacked, much to the consternation of many of his companions. By the end of the fight some ghouls had died, one of the ghouls escaped, and the tavern was exploded. One surviving ghoul (the innkeeper), joined up with the Phunk, and is currently living in the Phunk fort underneath the Moth District.

The destroyed tavern is currently on lock down by the City Watch, who quickly descended on the place. The official story is that the building was blown up in an act of terrorism by the Folk, and is still under investigation as a potential incursion.

Then San Taa and Krampus showed up amid end of year shenanigans. San Taa had his flying chariot stolen by the Phunk, and Krampus lost his bag to Hell to them too. Also, the Phunk may have burned some bridges with the Wyrder's Guild by attacking them in the guildtower headquarters when the guild weren't as forthcoming with money as the group wanted.

So it's not an official Nerd Louisville Friday Night RPGs, but I've got one last free Friday this year, and looking to run one more game, assuming "room at the inn" at Heroes this coming Friday. I'll look to start that the usual 8:00 (my job schedule willing), or maybe as early as 7:00 if I get out on time and the players are there.

The first ever Moonthrone Christmas Special!
A strange red stripe is visible circling one of the ivory mooncoral spires in the skyline over the Wyrd District. Children wake from nightmares of creepy gnomish elves spying on them from shelves and closets. Beggars report their urchin wards snatched away and stuffed in sacks by a goat-headed demon stalking the streets. Hide your kids, because San-taa of the Cold Wastes is coming to Moonthrone!

Charion and Jared, warlocks of Azula shared a dream. They awoke on a ledge inside a mooncoral spire, rather than the burned-out barracks of the captured garrison they went to sleep in. Urged by their patron, they leapt into the void and fell through the spire, deep into the earth. Each grew purple wings which slowed their fall. The spire opened into a gigantic cavern where far below they saw a city built upon a mass of mooncoral like a gargantuan upside down ivory tree stump, from which hundreds of spires spoked out and up into the earth above. At the center of the city was a giant mooncoral dome. As they fell closer to the city, they saw figures fighting in the cyclopean streets. Eventually they could make out distinct forces; figures in purple robes and tabards fought against other figures barricaded into more fortified positions throughout the city. Upon even closer examination, it seemed most of the figures were ghouls, descended from various races, and fighting for control of the city.

Back in the Moonthrone, the group decided to investigate the mysterious eye-covered temple that appeared overnight in the Moth District. They distracted a group of Wyrders who were examining the building, and managed to get inside.

Inside, they discovered the building to be an ancient temple devoted to Sankhis, a forgotten goddess of destiny and augury. After passing some of the temple's tests, they found a ghoul priest named Nimon, who explained that Sankhis was one of many gods once worshiped in the ancient city of Xul Garoth, deep beneath the earth. Long ago, as part of Sankhis's rites, those who proved themselves worthy were granted visions, and entry into the temple's central chamber where Sankhis herself answered questions of the future. Around 1000 years ago Sankhis fell out of favor due to some sort of power shift in Xul Garoth, and the temple was shunted outside of normal time and space, destined only to return to the material plane in times of great change and possible calamity.

They also fought a few swarms of floating eyeballs, which attempted to engulf them and pull the eyeballs out of their heads. Despite some close calls, no one lost their eyes to the ocular swarms. Jared wasn't so lucky in the long run though.

In the central chamber, Jared failed to show the proper deference to Sankhis with his questions, and after a couple of failed constitution saves had one of his eyes yanked out of his head.

He got better though. Sort of. He didn't grow the eye back, but Azuluza answered Jared's call enough to grow the dragonborn a new eye on the back of his head. Not so helpful with his hood up, but otherwise useful for not getting surprised when his hood is down.

Some of the visions seen while venturing through the temple:

Reese Kincaid on trial before the shadowy leaders of the Cog, with his hands tied behind him.

Roachlings crashing a snazzy wedding in the City Above.

A procession of hobgoblins, goblins, and bugbears in fancy clothes being escorted through the City Above.

The Gnarloc meeting with an ashen, grey-skinned figure in grey robes.

Ghouls running wild through the streets of Moonthrone's City Below, eerily similar to Jared and Charion's dream the night before.

Upon exiting the temple, the group encountered the Wyrders Guild scholars they bypassed earlier. The Wyrders explained that the temple was soon to be walled up by the city as an Incursion area, but the Wyrders would still be allowed entry behind the walls to study the temple. As the group were the only people known to have ever entered the temple and emerge with their eyes (mostly) still in their heads, the Wyrders entered into an agreement to allow the group future access to the temple, in exchange for future help with the Wyrder's investigations.

[As always, if I mis-remembered anything, or if anyone wants to add anything I missed feel free to add an update. In particular, if anyone remembers any visions I forgot, or the specific questions asked in the central chamber, let me know.]

Looking to pick up this coming Saturday, 11/3, starting where we left off last time--lost in that weird green desert, about to set off from the crash site/base camp and head east to investigate the lights in the distance.

Everybody from last time is welcome! If anybody wants a refresher, or to revamp or re-build a character, let me know!

Hopefully we'll get to bi-weekly sooner or later, though I expect family around Thanksgiving and conventions early December might throw that off for a bit.

While everyone was lost in the Underneath, Dokeppel Ironbones researched the area and worked his contacts to come up with a plan of action for Adrick's revolution. He determined they needed to build connections and infrastructure, and the Moth District seemed like a good place to start.

One of the most influential groups in the area is the Wyrder's Guild. The Wyrders are an organization of wizards and scholars with an exclusive license from the Spirelords for investigations and experiments into incursion areas and corruption effects, presumably in hopes to find a cure for the otherworldly corruption endemic to Moonthrone. Their base of operations is a strangely leaning (and even more strangely, slimy) tower that abuts the wall to the neighboring Wyrd District. They also have smaller halls, laboratories, and lodges through the city from which they sell alchemical and magical goods and services to fund their experiments.

Dok identified two promising leads to make inroads with the Wyrders.

First, there was a guild hall that had recently closed its doors to the public after a peasant supposedly took ill and died after using a potion purchased from the guild hall. Since the death, the hall hired guards to watch the entrance, and no one had been seen entering or leaving for days.

Second, a few days ago a mysterious temple adorned with eye imagery had appeared in a burned over lot overnight. The building supposedly appeared in a flash of blue light, and rumors spread that a few adventurous individuals, strangely drawn to the building, experienced visions of the future or the past associated with the place. No one actually knew any of the people who had experienced the visions, though two people had been identified as entering the temple and emerging blind. One supposedly simply no longer had eyes, while the other seems to have gone blind from sort of poison. After the blindings, the building was identified as a possible incursion, and marked for quarantine by the city, but so far the City Watch had not descended on the site with the usual contractors and materials to build a wall around the place. Rumors said the Wyrders had convinced the Watch to delay quarantine so an investigation could be completed.

The group decided to investigate the closed guildhall first.

The guild hall was in front of a small park area. Behind the hall was a pond with a laboratory built on a raised platform in the middle of the pond. Outside the hall, was a guardhouse with three hired guards on watch to turn any would be visitors away.

As usual, a fight broke out. One of the guards was ultimately convinced to leave, while two more were polymorphed into gnomes thanks to Jared's remaining gnome caps (obtained during the gnome hunt months back). In the commotion, the City Watch nearly came down on the group, but the chaos from mind-controlled guards attacking civilians (thanks Crown of Madness!), and free-ranging gnomes drew their attention away. The party split, with half going into the guild hall, and Adrick and Charion exploring the pond out back.

Inside the guild hall, a blank-eyed and sopping wet Wyrder asked the party to leave, before immolating himself with a fireball. In the kitchen pantry they found a terrified halfling cook named Stavhy, who had been hiding for a week, ever since she saw a troll-like monster rip a Wyrder to pieces out back on the bridge to the laboratory.

Outside the guild hall, Adrick and Charion were attacked and nearly killed by water elementals on the bridge to the laboratory. They escaped, and took out the elementals when the party got back together.

In the laboratory over the pond the party found six glazed-looking alchemists in Wyrder robes working at the direction of a wet woman they misidentified as a hag, as well as her troll enforcer.

Ranir, Lord of the Chase was invoked, causing a swarm of foxes to descend upon the laboratory. Before they arrived however, an entire necklace of fireballs (4 or 5 beads worth of fireballs) was chucked at the troll. The resulting explosion obliterated the troll, all the mind controlled Wyrders, and most of the laboratory. No trace of the mysterious soggy witch-woman (eventually identified as a rusalka) was found. It is assumed she escaped into the pond when the floor collapsed under her.

So no inroads with the Wyrders were made. On the bright side, no Wyrders survived to pass on descriptions of the people who exploded their guild-lab either, though there is at least one guard who could identify them. The group also recruited Stavhy the halfling to join their cause so the proposed revolution has cook so far at least.

Having secured the garrison in the Underneath of Moonthrone, the group explored up the stairs that spiraled the interior of the garrison's moon coral tower/tunnel (after noting that a trap door in the floor level of the garrison spire led to more stairs descending even deeper).

After a good few hours of travel, they found a humanoid shaped doorframe similar to the one found in the roachlings' hideout, only less detailed, as if the features had smoothed out over time. The mooncoral of the doorway proved thin and brittle; it was an easy matter to break through, where they found an abandoned lizard-stable built onto the side of a spire which overlooked the Moth District from a height of about 250 feet. Apparently, the stable was once a waypoint and guard station for the City Watch, but had been abandoned long enough that the doorway to the spire had grown over (and, hopefully the remote garrison below forgotten about, but who knows?).

Jared summoned a giant lizard steed and ferried those who needed a ride back down to the city proper, where everyone got some days of downtime.

The group decided to establish the garrison in the Underneath as a base of operations for Adrick's plans for citywide revolution, with the remote stable as their access point to the city.

With some party members mysteriously missing (wandered into the dark? Snatched into a pocket dimension by Azuluza? Who knows?), and others mysteriously finding themselves lost in the underdark, the group continued to follow the underground river downstream.

Were those rats following them? Nope, they were weird rat-things with tentacle faces. The rat-things retreated to a weird purplish shadow thing, which morphed into an antlered bear-thing and attacked.

Jared and Charion tried to help out the oily bear-thing, recognizing it as related to their new purple patron, Azulza. Newcomers (and probably older allies as well), were understandably put off, but the battle was won, and the party continued down stream.

They came upon a dog man village at a bridge that crossed the river, with a road that led to Scratesburg. They decided to avoid the dog men, and try their luck further downriver.

At the end of the river, where it descended deeper into the rock, and presumably an underground waterfall, they found a remote dog man outpost surrounding a mooncoral spire leading to the surface.

With some good battle planning and defensive use of spells, the group managed to take the garrison, and prevent any dog man soldiers from escaping for reinforcements. The tower presumably leads to the surface, somewhere in Moonthrone...